


Investment development in depreciation-free assets of the social sector

by xStoryteller



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Emotional Baggage, F/M, Forced Marriage, I've had a field trip with this, Marriage Contracts, and I need a little more pressure to continue this behemoth, just let me have my guilty pleasures, seto needs professional help but does not want to get it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2018-09-11
Packaged: 2019-07-11 04:58:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15965201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xStoryteller/pseuds/xStoryteller
Summary: Seto is now 28 and public eye is starting to think he's a lonely nerd who'll go under with his company. The board of directors urges him to start changing this public opinion, as after a big TV interview stocks are starting to plummet already. Seto does not like this idea and concocts a plan that makes it the least bothersome to him.--Marriage contracts are my guilty pleasure and I am weak





	Investment development in depreciation-free assets of the social sector

Seto couldn’t even remember a detail about the interview two years ago. Even though it had been one of the few positions where he himself had been required to be part of the interviews, he couldn’t be bothered to commit it to memory. Out of the 14 applicants for the position of assistant to the president none had stood out and every conversation he had been forced to have had turned into a blur. In the end, he had based his decision on who had annoyed him the least; all of the applicants had been more than qualified and already worked in this position. Human Resource was one of the departments who were particularly meticulous about their work.  
His gaze rested on the years of employment. Two years was a long time in a position as close to Seto as his assistant. The previous assistant, a very capable man, had resigned out of his own will; he had been with KaibaCorp for a year. Seto would later comment that he asked too many questions. The previous one had been a woman who would always ask if he wanted anything to drink or to eat. Another one would mess up his spreadsheets and presentations.

Ms. Ishii had been taken over from a large Japanese investment company as a result of KaibaCorp’s direct search headhunting (Human Resources had a wholly different procedure for positions close to the Kaiba siblings). Seto briefly remembered having read this some two years prior. He had never been interested in his staff’s past – as long as they worked efficiently, he didn’t care who they were. Strangely enough, his assistant would be one of the most fitting for her job, as he would notice her least. People he could forget about, as he liked to call it, were the ones doing the best job; others would describe it as him having acknowledged those people as part of his routine.  
Seto laid down the cardboard folder on his desk. His gaze went off into the skyline of Domino as he turned around in his chair, brooding. What he had to decide was no small matter; a pivotal point of KaibaCorp was at stakes. The kind of matter that he had been called to discuss with the board of directors.

“Image” was always one of the points they would argue about at those meetings. Every so often Seto had been called irresponsible for his impulse spending on projects, his last-minute cancellations of others and, of course, his attitude. He had told them he didn’t care; even though they were the board of directors, it was still him who sat here as CEO, his brother as vice-president and them both carrying the name that had made the company what it was today. Almost all new technology they had developed over the last years was thanks to Seto’s genius (in his opinion, the personnel only helped in achieving it faster) and he would not let some minor annoyance like publicity ruin where this company was headed thanks to him. It was only after the meeting, when his temper had cooled down, that he could properly think about the situation he had been presented with.

An interview he had given a few weeks back had been the catalyst of it all. They had made a celebration of sorts out of Seto’s 28th birthday, which marked his 12-year-anniversary as president of KaibaCorp. He had been aware that the media was going to make a fuss about it, so he had allowed for one official interview. Due to the nature of the event, they asked about his age and what he had planned for the future. Seto had given a rather stock answer of KaibaCorp’s future projects, improving globalization, new markets and all that jazz – the journalist had to be a pesky one though. The pure annoyance this man’s words had been able to generate inside of Seto was what made him remember them.  
“Rumors amongst experts have it that the public is growing wary of you, Mr. Kaiba” he would have loved to punch his shit-eating grin, “The lone wolf at the head of KaibaCorp who – let’s put it this way – has kept his youthful enthusiasm isn’t going to last for long anymore.”  
“What are you implying?” He forced himself to a polite, yet unmistakably cocky smile.  
“Many are thinking about their future, Mr. Kaiba. Companies, competitors of yours even, aim for a stable future development. When you look at KaibaCorp, how do you plan to continue? Surely your younger brother will one day take over, but what about afterwards? Do you plan on following into the footsteps of your father?”  
Seto could feel his jaw clench unwillingly. He knew personal interviews caused problems and situations like these were exactly the reason why he rarely ever gave any. For the longest of times he had thought that he had made his peace with his adoptive father after the Battle City tournament, but the more he actually worked as a CEO the more people would compare Seto to him.  
“I definitely do not want to make the same mistakes as he did” his sharp tone was the one thing he couldn’t control to show his annoyance “I have already led KaibaCorp to a brighter future than it has ever seen under the reign of Gozaburo and I plan to continue doing so.”  
As he had expected, the journalist looked disappointed; it was clear that he had wanted a more personal answer, but at the same time he knew he wasn’t in a position to correct Seto Kaiba. The interview was pretty much over.

Sighing audibly, Seto’s thoughts found their way back to his present situation. Up until now, he had still been able to butt his way through situations involving publicity simply by being himself and not caring, but he came to realize that this here actually needed his attention. For once, a decision about KaibaCorp’s future would disturb his private life more than he cared to admit.  
The biggest problem of his predicament was that he couldn’t just get the people from Human Resource to work on it. They did an acceptable job, but acceptable wasn’t going to cut it here. Secrecy was in the focus of this all; he couldn’t have HR going around and just asking people around the country. In conclusion, it had to be someone he could easily reach out to himself.  
Ms. Ishii was someone Seto would describe as ‘boring’. That seemed to be why she was so good at her job. She didn’t ask many questions. She didn’t deviate from his instructions. Every appointment was scheduled as he needed it and every flight he had gotten on in the last two years that he didn’t make with his private jet were without anything to amend. Coffee was at his desk precisely when it needed to be there. He couldn’t think of any time where she had been absent, was it because of holiday or illness (though again, he didn’t care unless it had a negative impact on his own work). The fact that he didn’t notice two years of her employment fly by was further proof of her good work.

Turning his chair back around, Seto picked Ms. Ishii’s folder back up again. His eyes read over her old CV again: graduated from a renowned high school in Osaka, followed by a study of economics at Osaka University (he chuckled briefly at the university’s slogan of “live locally, grow globally”) which she finished with a master’s degree. He’s had better trained assistants, but what she lacked in education she made up for with good work, secrecy and most importantly, by not asking too many questions. Seto actually considered it a good thing he barely knew anything about her life outside of KaibaCorp.  
Out of the corner of his eyes, Seto caught a glimpse of the time. Much too late. He was supposed to meet up with Mokuba for dinner at the manor, especially important today, since he was bringing his girlfriend Yui along. She’ll have to deal with waiting for dinner today. He sat up straight in his chair, pushing aside the folder he had looked at previously and finishing up the last few E-Mails for the day. Moments later, he grabbed his long-tailed coat and briefcase and stopped by the assistant’s office door on his way out. Upon reopening the door, he was met with Ms. Ishii’s blue eyes looking up from whatever work she was doing on the screen in front of her.  
Her calm and reserved demeanor was something many people commented on towards Seto. The way she was sitting in her chair, back straightened and hands close to her body, ready to type, in wait for his instructions, she exuded an air of professionality. As per usual, she wore a white sleeveless rib knit turtleneck over a black, knee-length pencil skirt. Her black hair was neatly pulled together into a bun.

Seto lifted his head ever so slightly in preparation for his words.  
“I’m leaving for today. Cancel my appointment with Mr. Nakagawa at 8 and reschedule my meeting with HR for 8.”  
“Understood, Mr. Kaiba.” she responded without any further change in her demeanor.  
“What’s the status on Cloudsys?”  
“I tried contacting them, but was unable to get a result. I have sent them a reminder with a deadline until Monday.” Would she have had any results, she would have told him. Results were all he wanted to hear. He gave a brief nod of acknowledgement.  
“Until tomorrow then.”

\---

Ms. Ishii made a halt a few feet from Seto’s desk, her hands folded behind her back.  
“Yes, Mr. Kaiba.”  
He had just come back from his after-lunch meeting and was shifting through the notes in his hands. Most of them would be handed to her for processing and preparation of follow-up data. Shaking them up to align them, he put them to the right side of his desk, before finally looking at his assistant. He leaned back in his chair.  
“You’ve been with KaibaCorp for two years now, Ms. Ishii. The least I can say about your conduct is that you do a very good job of not annoying me”, he paused briefly, fully aware what mess his next words would make out of his life, “I’m promoting you.”  
Seto watched the eyes of the woman in front of him widen ever so slightly at his last words. Her lips parted and he knew that she was thinking about asking the obvious questions. Yet a simple “I am honored, Mr. Kaiba” coupled with a deep bow was what she made of it. Letting out a small sigh, he opened one of the drawers of his desk and produced a large folder with neatly printed papers. Making sure not to forget his pen, he stood up and made his way to the door.  
“We will now discuss the details. Lead the way; you booked the room after all.”

He wanted this to be over quick. No man like Seto had to be caught up in meaningless things like these (or so he told himself). After he had talked to HR about his decision this morning, he made sure that they would have the details and promotion contract ready as fast as they could. They did a good job, but still too slow in his own opinion. Initially he had wanted to be done with this whole ordeal before lunch, even if I would have cost him a few more meeting cancellations.  
Ms. Ishii led the way to one of the larger conference rooms on the same floor as Seto’s office. He remembered that this room had been one of the first to undergo renovations four years ago – the green carpet with brown walls had started simply disgusting him and after they hadn’t been changed for so long. Now a dark grey carpet along with clean, white walls was the standard for KaibaCorp offices, along with new modern furniture. The conference table in the middle of the room featured a big aluminum table base with a dark wooden top. It accommodated for around ten people with corresponding black swinger chairs with tall backs. In this particular room, an aerial view of the opening of the first KaibaLand Japan printed on canvas filled up the wall space next to the door. Seto had had every conference room fitted with such canvasses, every room featuring a different KaibaCorp structure or conceptual design collages of their products. The early midday sun flooded the room and seemed to make this particular canvas shine. This image of Kaiba Land Nagoya was secretly Seto’s favorite; to him and Mokuba, it had always been a monument to overcoming their stepfather.

After shaking off the thought that after more than 10 years, his stepfather’s legacy still was haunting him, he put a copy of the contract down at one end of the table. His decision of sitting down at the direct opposite side was a more subconscious choice to have distance between the two of them.  
“We will go through this paragraph by paragraph”, he flipped over the first pages containing the personal details, “You will see that this is an important position that requires exact understanding of the details.”

 

__

  
PROMOTIONAL EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT

This PROMOTIONAL EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT (hereinafter “contract”) of November 28th, 2008, made between

 

Kaiba Kabushiki Gaisha (hereinafter “Kaiba Corporation” and represented by Mr. Kaiba Seto), 1-2-1 Inaka, Naka-ku, Domino City 564-4567

and

Ms. Ishii Reiko, 1-6-2 Yamada, Fuchi-ku, Domino City 564-4567

 

as follows:

BACKGROUND  
Mr. Kaiba Seto as a representative of the Kaiba Corporation is of the opinion that the employee to be promoted has the necessary qualifications, experiences and abilities to assist and benefit the Kaiba Corporation in its business.

Mr. Kaiba Seto as a representative of the Kaiba Corporation has thoroughly considered the employee and has come to the conclusion that the employee can and should be promoted. The employee has agreed to accept this promotion upon the terms and conditions set out in this contract.

IN CONSIDERATION OF the matters described above and the benefits and obligations set forth in this contract (the receipt and sufficiency of which are hereby acknowledged), the parties to this contract agree as follows:

Commencement Date and Term  
1\. The employee will commence permanent full-time employment under the terms and conditions of this contract on the 28th day of November, 2008 (the “commencement date”).

Position Title and description  
1\. The title of the employee for the duration of the contract will be “Permanent Personal Assistant to the President for public and private relations”. Duties and responsibilities include the precedent duties and responsibilities associated with the previous employment of the employee as “Assistant to the President” and are expanded by representative duties towards the public as well as permanent on-site standby duties. Duties further include other duties as may arise from time to time and as may be assigned to the employee at the discretion of Mr. Kaiba Seto. This includes permanent addition of new duties and responsibilities as seen fit.

2\. The employee agrees to be subject to the permanent supervision of and act pursuant to the orders, advice and direction of Mr. Kaiba Seto as a representative of the Kaiba Corporation. The employee will perform any and all duties as requested by Mr. Kaiba Seto as a representative of the Kaiba Corporation that are customarily performed by a person holding a similar position.

3\. The employee agrees to abide by Mr. Kaiba Seto’s, as the Kaiba Corporation’s representative, rules, regulations, policies and practices, including those concerning work schedules, vacation and sick leave, as they may from time to time be adopted or modified.

Employee Compensation  
1\. As full compensation for all services provided the employee shall be paid at a monthly rate of 67.000.000,00¥ . Payments shall be subject to normal statutory deductions.

2\. All expenses arising out of employment shall be reimbursed. This includes living expenses of any kind.

3\. The compensation mentioned under 1a is not subject to any additional remuneration such as bonuses or other similar incentive remuneration.

Employee Benefits  
1\. The Employee will be entitled to additional benefits inherent to the position. This includes full health care as customary for the position.

Vacation  
1\. The employee is entitled to 10 days of paid independent vacation each year. The amount of days is capped at 10.  
2\. The times and dates for any vacation will be determined in correspondence with Mr. Kaiba Seto as the Kaiba Corporation’s representative.

Probation Period  
1\. Due to the nature of the contract as a promotional employment contract, no probation period is given.

Termination  
1\. Mr. Kaiba Seto as the Kaiba Corporation’s representative is the only party with authority to terminate the contract.  
2\. Termination of the contract is only to be taken into consideration after all measures of troubleshooting have failed.

Confidentiality  
1\. All details of the contract, as well as details about conclusion of the contract are to be handled with utmost discretion. Other sensible data is to be handled as instructed by Mr. Kaiba Seto as the Kaiba Corporation’s representative.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties have duly affixed their signatures under hand and seal as of the date first above written.

SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED in the presence of:

Ishii Reiko  
______________________

Kaiba Seto  
______________________  
Chief Executive Officer, Kaiba Kabushiki Kaisha

Seto looked up from the papers in front of him to find Ms. Ishii’s eyes darting around the lines in front of her. After a few moments, a raise of her head indicated she was done reading.  
“I understand”, after a short pause, her eyes detached from the paper to meet Seto’s gaze, “It’s a contract marriage.”  
“Yes. I think the first paragraph does a good job in describing how much work I personally had to invest in this whole matter”, he made vague motions with his penless hand, “And the starting date makes it obvious how fast I need this to be settled. I’ll start with the description; ‘Permanent Personal Assistant to the President for public and private relations’ effectively means that you will be known as my ‘spouse’. This is a purely public title and does not reflect the actual personal relation.”  
He paused, both in anticipation of her reaction and because he began to feel sick just talking about this. The whole thought of being obligated to “marry” just so people would not think the company was going to go down with an old, lonely geezer at the top truly made him want to throw up is lunch. He’d wanted to throw up all of his meals from the last few weeks of this bullshit.

“I think it figures that ‘permanent on-site standby duties’ means you’ll be moving into the manor. You will be provided with a separate bedroom, bathroom and office space and anything else I couldn’t be bothered to think about. You’re allowed to use other facilities such as the pool or gym at your leisure, in accordance with Mokuba’s and my own plans”, he sighed audibly and annoyed, the more this went on the more riled up he became, “Depending on your current mode of transportation, a new one will be provided to reflect your new position – a car that is. Other vehicles such as the jet are off limits, unless stated otherwise by me personally.  
The public duties mentioned are things like proper honorifics to be used in public. You are to address me as “husband”, “spouse” or similar. When in direct conversation, you are to address me by first name. You will accompany me to any public event that requires your presence in the eye of the public. Most importantly, you will continue your duties as assistant, meaning within the company you will be doing the same things as you have until now. Out of convenience, this means that you will also be performing your assisting duties at the manor.  
Your compensation will be 67.000.000¥*. It doesn’t include any bonuses since I’ll be paying for all of your living expenses anyway. Same principle applies for vacation days; you will be required to accompany me on certain business trips and on scheduled short vacations for the sake of keeping the marriage image intact. The ten days mentioned in the contract are to spend exclusively alone. You are required to inform me at least three months in advance with the duration and location of your vacation. The location is purely out of security reasons.”

Seto didn’t realize he had started monologuing. He had his eyes fixed on Ms. Ishii in front of him, who was, as he was explaining each paragraph, staring down at the contract, her hands folded in her lap. He remembered Mokuba telling him about this once – that especially with things he wanted to be done quickly, he just rattled everything down and left the people at that. Most were simply too baffled by the amount of important information they had just been given to ask any questions. Some from within KaibaCorp, especially Research and Development, by now just took notes or outright recorded his monologues. These procedures had proven to reduce staff turnover in those departments significantly. Human Resources had had that point added to the initial training plan for new employees.

“Last point, termination. Since this whole thing is what I like to call a counter-measure to sway of public opinion to the detriment of KaibaCorp, it is in my and the company’s interest to have it run for the longest time possible”, worst case for him: forever, he thought, “Which means KaibaCorp will take every measure possible to avoid a ‘divorce’. Do you have any questions?”

She responded with a short, quick “No”.

“Do you accept?”, he followed his question shotgun after her answer. The sooner he could get this bullet point done with, the faster things would go back to normal and Seto could focus on more important matters.  
A pause followed and silence filled the meeting room. The few seconds it lasted felt far too long. What a waste of time. His eyes were still piercing his “assistant”, scanning every inch of her body for an answer. Ms. Ishii’s expression still showed the same calm and reservedness it did every other day. A hint of tension around her mouth was the only thing that indicated she was hard at thinking about the decision to make. Seto started to tap his foot on the floor impatiently; how long could it take someone to answer a simple yes-or-no-question? This short moment of annoyance was enough to make him reevaluate his opinion about Ms. Ishii.

“Yes.”

Just before Seto’s thoughts could start to relabel her as incompetent and annoying, she finally broke her silence. Her eyes returned his piercing look, but he clearly noticed she had started kneading her hands in her laps with unease. It would be the first time he saw her do this, although he wouldn’t pay it any more thought.  
“Well then”, he motioned to the pen and contract in front of her, “All that’s left is your signature to make it official.”  
Ms. Ishii removed the cap from the silver pen with a loud clicking noise and shuffled through the pages of the contract before reaching the one with the blank for her signature. Seto’s eyes remained on her actions, almost as if to make sure she went through with all this. Only as she was putting down the pen and started writing the signs of her signature in bright blue ink was it that this event started to feel real to him. A feeling of relief started to flow over him, though at the same time thoughts about the coming work this ordeal was connected with kept creeping in the back of his mind.


End file.
